Here and Now
by SniperCT
Summary: Lena has planned to surprise Emily with a cake for her birthday. Naturally this leads to a mess in the kitchen, and everywhere else. What month is it again?


The flat was a mess. No, it was more than a mess, it was a _disaster_. It looked as though a small orange tornado had struck it and sent all of Emily's belongings flying about in every direction and that was before she got to the kitchen.

 _"Motherfu-"_

"Emily!"

Lena's head appeared from a collection of pots and pans. Behind her was a six-layer cake dangerously close to toppling over. It vaguely resembled one that Emily had seen in an ancient cartoon. Something involving fairies.

There was more frosting on Lena than there was on the cake, and much of what was on the cake had been spread too thin. Lena was always the impatient one.

Emily tangled her fingers into her hair. " _Lena_? What are you _doing_."

"Uhm. Making you a cake, luv! I didn't think you'd be coming home so soon!" Lena darted out from behind the counter. "I thought I'd have more time to clean up."

"That doesn't explain why the living room looks like it got hit by an Earthquake." Emily gestured towards the living room.

"...I forgot where I hid your birthday present?"

That took Emily aback. "Birthday? But that's not for another two months."

Lena frowned, folding her arms over her chest. "No no. I'm certain it was today. I had it marked on my calendar and everything! I didn't want to forget."

"Lena." Emily walked over, taking her hands and forcing her arms apart. "My birthday is in April. The third, remember?"

"It's not April?"

Emily shook her head. "It's February."

"Bugger." Lena's shoulders sank and all the air went out of her lungs. She leaned into Emily, her voice sounding distant. "It happened again. I'm sorry, I forgot what month it is." Lena looked up at Emily with wide, sad eyes. "It's frustrating for you, innit?"

Brushing aside some of Lena's hair, Emily shook her head. "It's okay. It's not your fault you lost track of the time."

"But that's the thing, I didn't lose track of anything!" Lena pulled away, lifting her hands up and shaking them. "It was April, it _was_. I _remember_ it! But then it's not April no more and we're back in February and I'm being so stupid."

She hugged herself again. "I don't wanna bother Winston because he couldn't find anything wrong last time."

"I think it's just a side-effect of your condition." Emily eased past Lena to try to rescue the cake by propping it up with part of a baking sheet. If it leaned over much further the mess was going to be a thousand times worse. "It's like you're in multiple times at once. Pity we can't take advantage of that."

"Emily!" Lena stared at her, aghast Her cheeks burned..

Flicking some frosting in Lena's direction, Emily laughed. "I don't think I could survive more than one of you. But we might need more than one of you to clean up this mess."

"This might explain why I couldn't find your present." Lena looked towards the living room, then at the cake. "I might have been a bit too ambitious. I think it baked fine but I had to reverse time a couple of times when I burned it but I don't know if that'll mess up the flavour or not."

"That's one of the things I love about you." Emily said. She sidled up to Lena's side and slipped her arms around her. "You're ambitious, in the best ways because your heart is so big."

"You're just trying to butter me up so you don't have to clean up my mess."

"You're cleaning up your mess." Emily's tone was chipper, and she gave her a big smile. "But I'll still help."

Lena kissed her, then sniffled. "...are you sure it's not April?"

"I'm afraid not. But look at it this way. We'll get to have cake again."

That was definitely an upside, but Lena couldn't quite bring back her enthusiasm from earlier. Losing track of when she was made her disoriented. Even with the Chronal Accelerator she lost track of herself every now and again and it frustrated her.

"Lena." Emily snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Lena, focus on the here and now." She waited for Lena's eyes to come into focus, then cupped her cheek. "I'm here, now. You're here, now. The flat is a mess and that cake looks like it'll fall over any second, but this is now."

A laugh bubbled up from deep within Lena, and she nuzzled Emily's hand. "I promise you the cake is delicious. I should know, I sampled it already."

"That explains why you look like you baked yourself in the process." Emily's arms formed a tight circle around Lena. "Were six layers really necessary?"

"I was trying for seven but I decided not to be icarus," Lena replied, wiping her nose on Emily's sleeve.

To her credit, only one of Emily's eyes twitched. "You're disgusting."

"But I'm you're disgusting."

"I suppose you are." Emily sighed dramatically. "That's why you're banished to the living room to clean it up while I try to save my kitchen."

"So it's _your_ kitchen now?"

"This requires an engineer." Emily swatted Lena on the rump, then rolled up nonexistent sleeves. "Go!"

Lena tossed off a salute. "Yes'm!" She backed out of the kitchen. It was February. It was _February._ Maybe she ought to invest in an actual physical calendar.

Hey. It was February… She poked her head back into the kitchen and wolf-whistled. "Hey love, what day of February is it?"

"Sixth, why?"

"No reason!" Lena returned to the mess she'd made. Maybe she hadn't bought the birthday gift she'd been looking for yet, but she hadn't managed to miss Valentine's Day.

She'd just have to make it up to Emily for being such a bother. Not that Em would ever actually think she was a bother, but Lena felt like one. She rang up Winston as she set about cleaning. "Hey Winston! Do you got any suggestions for Valentine's Day?"

Over the speaker came the unmistakable sound of a surprised gorilla choking on a banana.


End file.
